How Virtual Body Continuity with Different Hand Representations Influence on User Perceptions and Task Performance

Virtual avatars or hands in virtual reality connect users’ physical bodies and virtual worlds. Changes in the virtual hand representations (body continuity and hand realism) may affect user perceptions and task performance. However, there is no agreed conclusion on how they influence user perceptions (the sense of embodiment and presence) and limited evidence of task performance. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of body continuity (connected and disconnected virtual hand) with three hand realism levels on user perceptions and task performance by self-report and objective performance data in virtual reality. The results revealed no significant results about body continuity on user perceptions, while a significant effect of hand realism levels on sense of embodiment and presence was found. Moreover, the abstract disconnected and connected hands reported lower task scores than those realistic hands from task performance data. Overall, this study provides new insights into further understanding user perceptions and task performance under the connected and disconnected hands, and it has practical reference value for exploring the later research on virtual hand representations.